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Amid five-game slump, TU visits No. 18 Cincinnati


by Tulsa World Sports Writer Kelly Hines
@kellyhinestw
/kellyhinestw

Updated: Friday February 17, 2017 6:03 pm

Nobody said this season would be easy.

After replacing a successful senior class with 10 newcomers, the University of Tulsa has taken its lumps this year, particularly during its current five-game slump.

“My big thing has been trying to get our guys to play with a competitive spirit and winning will take care of itself,” coach Frank Haith said. “That’s hard when you’re losing.”

Haith has had only one losing season in his 13-year career as a head coach, 2006-07 at Miami. His first two Golden Hurricane teams won at least 20 games and advanced to the NIT or NCAA Tournament.

With five games left, starting with Saturday’s visit to No. 18 Cincinnati, TU is 12-13 and 6-7 in the American Athletic Conference. The Hurricane has fallen to seventh place in the league after being projected ninth.

“If we can finish .500 with this young team, that’s a heck of a year for us,” Haith said.

All seven league losses have been against the teams projected to finish above TU in the conference, with the last five all coming against opponents in the top half of the standings. Those five teams are a combined 98-32.

“The schedule was tough for us,” Haith said, “and we weren’t mentally tough enough to handle the adversity after the Cincinnati game. We put so much into that game and to lose the way we lost it … we just couldn’t respond.”

The Feb. 1 defeat against Cincinnati launched the losing streak, which followed a 5-1 start to conference play. Against the Bearcats, who are tied for first in the American with SMU, the Hurricane let a double-digit lead slip away in the final minutes.

“They’re one of the more physical teams in the league and we battled with them until the last four minutes of the game,” Haith said. “They turned it up a level and overwhelmed us with some things.”

Since that heartbreaker, TU hasn’t emotionally recovered. It will get another stab at Cincinnati on Saturday but has a daunting challenge in playing at Fifth Third Arena, where the Bearcats have prevailed in their last 23 outings.

“The plan is to get our guys back to that game (the first meeting with Cincinnati) because that’s where it all started with our mindset,” Haith said. “We’re capable. You just have to go out and do it.”

Rampant shooting struggles against the league’s top defensive teams have led to a complete lack of confidence during the past month, but the coaching staff is attempting to keep spirits high in the last two weeks of the regular season in advance of the American Tournament, March 9-12 in Hartford, Connecticut.

“I don’t want our guys to hang their heads,” Haith said. “We’ve got to keep playing. As long as you’ve got a conference tournament, which we do, you’ve got opportunities to play in the postseason.”

Kelly Hines

918-581-8452

kelly.hines@tulsaworld.com

Twitter: @KellyHinesTW

http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextra/tu...d76db.html

With defeat at Cincinnati, TU losing streak reaches six


From Staff Reports

Posted: Saturday February 18, 2017 5:45 pm

CINCINNATI —The University of Tulsa’s slide that began with a Feb. 1 loss to Cincinnati at the Reynolds Center continued Saturday afternoon at No. 18 Cincinnati.

With an 80-60 loss at Fifth Third Arena, the Hurricane was handed a sixth consecutive defeat for the program’s longest losing streak since the 2004-05 season, when TU dropped seven in a row and finished 11-20.

Four of the past five losses, each against teams in the top half of the American Athletic Conference standings, have been by margins of at least 18 points. Cincinnati, tied with SMU for the league lead, rallied to edge the Hurricane by two in the first meeting.

“I thought our guys gave us a chance with the way they competed, and that’s all you can ask for,” Tulsa coach Frank Haith said on postgame radio.

The difference Saturday was a 35-9 run that started late in the first half when TU was within one point of the Bearcats, who led by six at halftime. Cincinnati (24-3, 13-1 AAC) scored 10 of the first 12 points of the secocnd half to seize control.

By the time the Hurricane made its first post-halftime basket, the Bearcats had an insurmountable 20-point advantage. The deficit quickly stretched to 64-37 on a 3-pointer from Kevin Johnson.

Because of rampant turnovers and fouls, TU didn’t get closer than 19 the rest of the way. Cincinnati was in the bonus for the final 13:27 and shot 20 free throws in the second half.

“They scored a lot of points (16) from the free-throw line,” Haith said. “We can’t defend that free-throw line. … We just weren’t physical enough to deal with the physicality of the game.

“The most physical team is going to get the calls and we weren’t physical enough to come in here and win the game.”

Behind improved shooting, the Hurricane (12-14, 6-8) matched Cincinnati for most of the first half. When the Bearcats started to pull away, TU responded with an 8-0 run to stay afloat.

Keying his team in the early going was Hurricane leading scorer Junior Etou, who finished with 22 points and eight rebounds, despite not scoring in the second half until the last three minutes. He was 6 of 9 on 3-pointers.

“He kind of put his trigger away until late in the game,” Haith said. “We need to get him understanding he can’t go away, he can’t hide. He’s got to continue to be assertive. But obviously he had a good game.”

Cincinnati, which secured a 24th consecutive home victory that also was coach Mick Cronin’s 300th career win, shot 56 percent from the field.

Kyle Washington and Jacob Evans combined for 35 points, and all five Bearcats starters scored in double figures.

Kelly Hines

918-581-8452

kelly.hines@tulsaworld.com

Twitter: @KellyHinesTW

http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextra/tu...df374.html

Frank Haith has found more ways to put "physical" in a paragraph than Olivia Newton John.

(02-18-2017 09:56 PM)Bearcatbdub Wrote: [ -> ]Frank Haith has found more ways to put "physical" in a paragraph than Olivia Newton John.

If he could eliminate the travel calls, it might have been a more competitive game. I'm glad to see the NCAA looking at it more closely. I don't watch enough basketball in general to know if it's called this close in all conferences.

I'm sure it's only a matter of time before some NBA coach complains about how traveling is called in NCAA ruins the pristine product that is the four step dunk step in the NBA.

(02-19-2017 12:58 PM)crex043 Wrote: [ -> ]I'm sure it's only a matter of time before some NBA coach complains about how traveling is called in NCAA ruins the pristine product that is the four step dunk step in the NBA.

LOL I don't even think they have to dribble anymore in the NBA

any semblance to basketball in an NBA game is purely coincidental...the NBA sucks